


Forgive me, brother.

by Nillegible



Series: Naruto Magic Week Fills [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Caged bird seal, Gen, Rituals, momentary character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 08:16:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19663396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nillegible/pseuds/Nillegible
Summary: Hiashi must place the Caged Bird's Mark on his young nephew, and it nearly breaks him. His brother gave his life for Hinata's, and Hizashi is all but taking Neji's with his own two hands.(Magical/Historical AU, where Konoha is the capital city of a kingdom and the Hyuuga are judges/nobility)





	Forgive me, brother.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope that this story makes sense! If it doesn't, tomorrow's entry should make it clearer!

Hiashi repeats his orders over in his head, just to make sure _it’s real_ , that this is what they want from him. “Your Majesty, please, I’ll take the mark in his stead. My nephew is still too young.”

“We have already considered allowing you to take your brother’s role, and our answer remains the same as before. Lord Hizashi’s mistake has cost us much. We cannot allow you to repeat it, as we explained when you last asked it of us.”

Repeat it? This was Hiashi trying desperately to atone for what he had let his brother do.

“Your majesty, _that incident_ was ruled a family matter,” he says. _So don’t you dare bring it up,_ Hiashi means, even though he speaks with perfect deference. “This should also-”

“ _Lord Hyuuga,_ ” and unfortunately, his Majesty sounds properly angry now, not irritated. “It was _our_ choice to grant Lord Neji eight years to shoulder his responsibilities in deference to his age. At that time, we had Uchiha to spare, and they could pass judgment in the Western Halls. It can no longer be considered a family matter.” Hiashi can argue no further. His majesty’s voice grows a little kinder when he says, “We are told that the child is a prodigy, even by your clans’ standards. He will be alright.”

There’s nothing to do but bow, to withdraw respectfully. Hizashi had been right, the king was mad. And what mad fool was Hiashi, to give in? Not a traitor though. Just a fool.

Hizashi had made it clear where he stood on the question of _King or Clan_ four years ago, and so had Hiashi. He writes a letter to Neji, summoning him to the Eastern Halls.

_Forgive me, brother._

Neji is not surprised when he is summoned to the East, to meet with Lord Hyuuga. He’s almost surprised that it took this long, two weeks since the massacre of the Clan of the North. No one yet knows quite how it happened. Some said that the Demon Fox had returned, or some even older and greater Kamuiy. Some said that it was a cursed mortal who had taken the Uchiha by surprise. The rumors conflicted on Uchiha Itachi's fate as well. He was killed, or lost, or captured, but the darkest whispers said the Uchiha heir had been possessed, that _he_ was the one to slay the strongest of Konoha’s clans in a single night.

What was left at cold dawn was a slaughtered family, a slaughtered noble clan that had held the peace in the northern sector for five hundred years, one missing heir, and a frightened grief-struck child of eight, suddenly the last of his bloodline. Neji had never thought he would pity an Uchiha, and yet.

Sasuke would have to hold the North alone. And the reason the Uchiha always lived there, even though they were such a large clan that worked in all five sectors (all four cardinal directions and the heart of Konoha, the Central District) was that the land was _angry_ there. It is said that when Konoha was founded, the North fought them, angry and crazed, refusing to cede ground to the settlers. Until the first Uchiha had raged _back_ with fire and spirit-flame and pure Uchiha stubbornness. The land bowed to Uchiha or _none_ , the tales say, only dragon-children can tame that fiery earth. What had been easily dismissed as legend or Uchiha eccentricity reared its cold ugly head when a clan thirty-six strong became _one_ overnight, and Sasuke may be a prodigy but he’s not that powerful.

Neji knows very well the limitations of prodigies, because without the Uchiha, his sector, the West, is left adrift. Spirits are rising all throughout Konoha, slipping in through lost defenses on two sides, and while it hadn’t reached demon-fox levels of chaos and destruction yet, the City was decidedly weakened, and unless something was done, they would not last.

Neji tries, but he’s only ten, and while Hatake Kakashi drops in as often as he can, the White Fang’s son is needed everywhere, and the Nara are too busy trying to keep the angry North from _killing people in their sleep_ so the angry petitioners crowding the Western Hall are not their most pressing concern _._ But his lands haven’t been happy in years, complying only resentfully to the Uchiha masters, and taking revenge in petty ways when possible. Without the protection of even those stop-gap measures though, those living in the Western Sector would not live until Neji’s sixteenth birthday, when he’d finally be of an age to take the mark.

The current circumstances definitely deserve to be qualified _unavoidable_ , Neji thinks. He has read up on the procedure before, in secret Hyuuga scrolls and in his father’s own meticulous records. Every resource advised not to try on a child unless circumstances were dire.

His carriage slows and takes a left onto a smaller road. He cranes his head to look out the window, but all he can see is a crowd of people so he activates his Byakugan. Through the mess of low powered civilian human-chakra, he spots what’s happened, a carriage on its side, people raising the carriage to try to rescue those trapped inside through the windows. There’s a familiar green edge that tells him this was no ordinary accident.

 _The situation is dire, father_ , he thinks.

Hiashi had been the third person to hold his brother’s new-born son, had stared in awed wonder at the tiny little mouth, the dark, damp, fuzzy curls and the soft sound of breathing. He’d returned the child at once, when the realization that this was Hizashi’s heir pierced the small-soft- _care_ feelings that had first swamped him. This was the child who would one day inherit Hizashi’s role, and Hiashi would be the one who would… the person who _had to_ mark the child. Tokuma had called Hizashi an idiot when he announced that he and his wife were going to have a child together. Hiashi has wondered a thousand times since if the cranky old man was right, if Hizashi was a fool because Neji is a beautiful, kind, little boy and already he has been singled out for a peculiar half-life.

A year later he is grateful, unspeakably grateful, that Neji would be Hizashi's heir and that Hiashi would not have to give up his baby, his baby daughter to be Hizashi’s heir. Hiashi had always suspected that Tokuma had remained childless out of spite, wanting to steal away his sister’s children or grandchildren, but he wonders if he had judged him unfairly. _Anyone else’s child but mine_ , Hiashi thinks, when his second baby daughter is born, acknowledging that he is a monster, that for this little girl’s sake he could let another, even the bright-eyed darling child of his brother take the Caged Bird’s mark.

(But how was this _fair_ he still thinks, drinking in his study late at night, unable to sleep because of the choices that haunt him. How had Hizashi been brave enough to have a child with the full knowledge of the consequences? Knowing that one day he'd have to be taken to an underground chamber, and killed by Hiashi's own hand. _Please, please,_ Hiashi thinks _, let me die first,_ then takes another swig when he realizes that that would mean that Hinata would have to mark Neji, then. Or Neji’s children. (Or if…if the boy chose not to have a family- _her own._ )

Maybe Hizashi thought he'd live as long as Tokuma, and that Neji would never be called upon to be Lord of the Western Halls. The old man had outlived Hizashi, only dying, possibly of heartbreak, two months after Hizashi was gone. And then Neji was truly alone, and nothing could be done.

(Please, god, not my children, Hiashi had whispered kneeling in the shrine even as he realized how despicable it sounded. Not my children, please.)

He resolved to ask the Hokage if he could take Neji's place. It had never been done before, but everything must have had a first time once. Hiashi could do this for his nephew, for his brother, or so he had thought before he had approached the king. 

Only, he couldn’t. He was not allowed to because the Hokage _expressly_ forbade it. At sixteen, Neji would have to take on his father's burden, to accept the consequences of a city's failure, and everything that came with that.

It should have been okay. It’s not ideal, but at sixteen he will be ready for the burden, Neji is a dutiful child. He could never have imagined that the western defenses would all be gone in the next two years, and that Hiashi is charged by his liege to do his duty and kill his own nephew. And, he still isn’t allowed to take his place.

The absolute worst thing is that Hiashi is willing to obey. He will listen to this mad order, just as Neji would, just as Hiashi's father and brother had once done. ‘ _Your own son,_ father, how could you?’ Hiashi wonders again and again. Nothing would let him take a stele to Hinata and Hanabi’s foreheads... ‘ _Hiashi was willing to die for your children_ ,’ a vicious voice whispers in Hiashi's ear, ‘he died for Hinata. For _you_ , and this is how you repay him.’

Hizashi was a fool to think that Hiashi was worth saving, he knows. The guilt burns behind his eyes and keeps him up at night.

But Hiashi is a judge, and so he knows firmly, acutely, that there's no such thing as fair. You dealt with the cards you got and tried not to cry about the consequences. There's nothing else to be done.

So Hiashi summons his nephew, who arrives promptly, small and serious looking and so much like he and Hiashi had looked as children that his heart squeezes. Hiashi leads him into the secret chapel below the river. He’s been there only once before, on his sixteenth birthday as his father led him and Hizashi and Tokuma down into a chamber he hadn’t even known existed.

He wants to explain to Neji what’s happening, wants to reassure him, but all he can manage is a somewhat cold explanation of how the flowing water above them was provide a measure of protection from unwanted spirits finding them mid-way.

“I know, sir,” the child says quietly. “My father left me instructions. I know how it all works.” His voice is quiet but firm, and Hiashi’s heart clenches at the thought of Hizashi planning for Neji’s mark, for not being around when it happened.

He picks up the sharp stone blade from the altar and turns to face his nephew. He repeats the ancient ritual words, as his nephew kneels, as he accepts the duty, the burden, with his eyes meeting Hiashi’s evenly. He almost wishes the child would look away, there’s so much terror buried there alongside the determination.

Hiashi kneels before him, pushes dark strands of hair out of the way, and sets the cursed tip to pale skin. Neji’s eyes are wide, his jaw and cheek trembling faintly beneath his fingertips though for all that he’s still holding his composure incredibly well. _How did you do it, father?_ Hiashi has asked for years, and now he has his answer, as thin lines of blood fill in the paper-thin scores he makes on his nephew’s skin, as he etches the symbol he's practiced over and over into Neji’s forehead. _This is how._

_What if he dies_ , Hiashi wants to know, as the mark begins to pull all of Neji’s chakra towards itself, each glittering chakra pathway emptied out and traveling upwards unnaturally. _What good is loyalty to a king who allows this_ , he thinks, when his nephew's body shudders when Neji tries to bite back a scream, chokes, stills, and then falls limp in Hiashi’s arms, lifeless. For a heart-beat, for one heart-beat longer, Hiashi has to control himself, his byakugan observing the glowing mark on his nephew’s forehead until it matures, and then he reaches down to complete the last two strokes.

(When Hizashi had collapsed lifeless he’d nearly lost his mind, Lord Tokuma had to grab him and hold him back until Father could complete the mark, and Hizashi had gasped and opened his eyes again.)

Only, Neji doesn't gasp back to life, doesn’t shudder and twitch, or react in any way. The mark is complete, but the child _doesn't move_ , the chakra just swirling inertly in his forehead. Hiashi gathers the child into his arms, shocked beyond belief. No. No, please, no. He'd killed him. The body limp in his arms, eyes shut, no chakra flowing at all, except within the faulty mark, and dear god he's killed his nephew.

 _Why my family? Why Neji? Give him back,_ he breathes as he holds his brother’s only son, and then Neji gives a soft cough. Coughs again, and chokes, and breathes, and Hiashi sobs because he had truly thought his nephew was lost forever. He helps the gasping child sit up, rubs his back and whispers, “Breathe,” as he watches the chakra, now tinged the odd silver of the Western branch family slowly wind its way back through Neji’s small frame. Neji lets out a shuddering breath and opens his eyes.

And blinks, and blinks again, and then his eyes widen in horror as his breath hitches hands reaching up to touch his face. “I can’t _see_. Lord Hyuuga, I can’t-” and then the child activates his byakugan and Hiashi watches the flood of chakra that seeks out the dojutsu, sees the chakra pathways around his eyes expand and burst, watches the fine blood vessels that supply the eye snap in the onslaught _,_ and suddenly Neji is screaming, blood seeping from his eyes. His eyes are screwed shut, but the tell-tale chakra around his eyes makes it obvious that his byakugan is still activated.

“Can you deactivate your Byakugan?” the boy isn’t listening, so Hiashi leans closer, “Neji, listen to me! You need to deactivate your Byakugan.” the boy stiffens, and Hiashi sees him try, sees the chakra try to stem itself for a few moments before it floods back anew, and his nephew keens, hands going up to cover his face. Hiashi holds the small wrists away, ignores the sight of wide, bloody, sightless eyes that open in shock at his manhandling, and with a few careful pinches on Neji’s neck and face, seals off the broken chakra lines.

His nephew is trembling, tears streaming down his cheeks mixed with blood and Hiashi takes a moment to curse their kingdom and their ancestors, to curse himself, for not taking his family and fleeing the city ten years ago.

“Close your eyes,” he says, as softly as he can. Dear god, what had he done wrong? The mark on Neji’s face is identical to the ones in his scrolls, had it just been too powerful for his nephew? “Shh, close your eyes for now. I sent for Lady Senju when I realized what we were going to have to do.” Neji has never been anything but formal since Hizashi's death, has stared at him with mildly concealed hatred but now he reaches out for him with his small hands and Hiashi takes it in his own to feel it trembling. He places the child’s hand on his shoulder, using his freed hand to try and wipe the blood away.

Slipping one arm beneath Neji’s thighs, Hiashi lifts him up. “I’m sure that she can put you to rights,” he says and offers other soft and inane platitudes as he carries his nephew up the runed staircase and out of the small shrine. People stop to stare, the extended family and the servants alike, as he walks towards his family’s personal quarters but he ignores them, only stopping shortly to ask if Lady Senju had arrived. “Send her to the convalescence room when she gets here,” he orders and takes Neji there himself.

“How did it go wrong, Lord Hyuuga?” Neji asks, the first thing he’s said since he said he had gone blind. Hiashi wrings out the pink stained cloth in his bowl of warm water before he carefully slides it around Neji’s shut eyes, rubbing off the crusted blood from the boy’s dark lashes and trying his hardest not to hurt him further.

“I don’t know, Neji,” he says. “I do not think I made a mistake. And yet everyone always warns against trying on someone underage. I can only assume that your chakra pathways were not strong enough to contain the mutated form of the chakra.”

It isn’t. It isn’t perfectly alright. Neji is shivering so hard and his chakra is so turbulent and unbalanced that it takes Lady Senju three hours to heal the damage to the intricate and delicate array of chakra pathways and blood vessels supplying the byakugan. Tsunade looks furious all through the procedure, although she keeps her voice kinder when addressing his nephew.

Neji falls asleep shortly before she finishes, and she glares at him. “Lord Hyuuga, I expected better of you. You could have killed or crippled this child. I still can’t tell you for certain if his powers will grow appropriately or if his body will damage itself as he gets older trying to cope. _What were you thinking?_ ”

Hiashi wants to tell her it’s none of her business, but he holds his tongue. He thinks about it and decides that the truth cannot hurt too much, here. “It would have been treason to refuse to do it myself. Should I have let the king send someone else to perform the procedure after I was executed for treason? His Majesty would not let me take his place.”

Tsunade looks angry, but speaks no further. Hiashi was not the one brave enough to break loyalty; look what happened to Hizashi. (And, rumors said, look what happened to the Uchiha. His Majesty always knows, say the rumors. Uchiha Fugaku disagreed with the King and he was never quiet about it. Look what happened to the Uchiha. Hiashi can never show that he's heard these rumors, but he wonders, always wonders if it can be true.)

He sits by his blind nephew's bedside after the healers leave, slowly wiping crusted blood off of his face with warm water and soft towels. He finishes, and can’t find it in himself to move. How had they thought Neji could be ready for this? He looks just as defenseless as he had when Hizashi had settled his firstborn in Hiashi’s arms for the first time. He can’t leave while Neji sleeps, the child will need someone to guard him. (You killed him yourself, who will you protect him from?)

Two days later, he can start seeing shapes. Blurry, but at least he can see light, and over the next three days his eyesight comes back in degrees. Activating his Byakugan again bursts a few blood vessels, but it’s fewer this time, more easily put to rights. 

It's good enough for him to take up his duties. Hatake Kakashi's been working the most urgent cases in the Western Halls but there’s so much to be done, says Neji, and begs leave to return home.

"Let me accompany you," says Hiashi and it's a request, not a command, but his nephew bows and accepts it anyway.

His nephew is silent on the ride home, his byakugan activated, and Hiashi can only imagine what he sees. He has to ask.

"There are just _so many,_ Lord Hyuuga," his nephew says. "They've been waiting for me."

And for all that Neji is but a child still, Hiashi can almost see the grace and nobility of a far older Lord in his aspect, as the child sits up straighter. His eyes rove over what seems to be empty fields to Hiashi, and it's a little frightening, watching the child see the spirits of the deceased.

Some day, Hiashi will be standing here, waiting for the Lord of the West's attention and Judgement.

He can't help but think he's made a rather poor showing thus far. Not for the first time, Hiashi prays for his brother's forgiveness, even though (coming from a family of judges, and a judge himself) he _knows_ that there can be no mercy, only justice. 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you liked it;


End file.
